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Weekly News from the President- Welcome to 2015

Posted onJanuary 12, 2015

I hope you had a Happy New Year, and are ready for 2015! We are hitting the ground running at ACM!
In Washington DC, a new Congress is being sworn in this week, and with that Congress will be new leadership and committee assignments affecting telecommunication and PEG Access.

ACM is working with NATOA, Americans for the Arts and other groups to help amplify the voice of PEG channels and community media operations in Congress. In the next several weeks, we will be working on position papers to inform House and Senate members about the importance of PEG for the future of our communities, and the necessity for strengthening and protecting the sector.

Additionally, we will be coordinating lobbying day activities with other arts groups from around the country as a part of Arts Advocacy Day this March.

If you’d like to be involved with ACM’s work with Congress, please let me know directly so we can coordinate our work and use your talents and insights.

All this is happening as ACM’s work with the FCC continues on several fronts. ACM and the Alliance for Communications Democracy filed final comments on the Comcast Time Warner Charter transactions right before the New Year, and will be filing final comments with Common Cause in the AT&T DirecTV merger this week. We’ll also be monitoring an upcoming rulemaking on Over the Top video providers and will keep members posted on the importance of the proceeding.

I’m also looking forward this week to visiting member stations in Vermont. Vermont is widely known for its dedication to local economy and civic culture, and community media operations provide vital links to needed information for Vermonters. I’ll be taking notes on innovations taking place there and concerns that communities have to inform our work with other states around the U-S. I’ll give you an update next week (here’s a preview…it will be cold!).

And by the way, if you’re interested in updates on community media on Twitter, I pass along articles and developments I see during the week. Follow me here @mikewassenaar